Structures & Roles
For innovation to happen reliably rather than by luck, an organization needs the right structures and roles. There is no single correct design - the best choice depends on your strategy and the horizons you are pursuing - but the recurring patterns and key roles are worth knowing.
Common structural models
Embedded in the business
Innovation lives inside existing units. Great for Horizon 1 incremental work, but easily crowded out by day-to-day pressures.
Dedicated innovation team or lab
A separate group with room to explore Horizon 2/3 ideas, shielded from short-term metrics - but at risk of disconnecting from the core.
Ambidextrous organization
Deliberately runs both: exploiting the present and exploring the future, with senior leadership bridging the two. Often the healthiest model for sustained innovation.
Key roles
Chief Innovation Officer / Sponsor
Senior leader who champions innovation, secures resources, and protects it from the pressures of the core business.
Innovation Manager / Lead
Runs the innovation process and portfolio day-to-day; orchestrates disciplines and shepherds projects through the pipeline.
Innovation Team / Core Team
The cross-functional group that actually does the work - diverse skills united around a specific opportunity.
Champions & Intrapreneurs
Passionate individuals who drive ideas forward against inertia, taking ownership of an innovation as if it were their own venture.
Gatekeepers / Governance
Decision-makers who review projects at stage gates - funding, continuing, pivoting, or killing them with discipline.
Which structural model best describes your organization, and is it right for the horizons you claim to pursue? Who protects your longer-term innovation from short-term pressure?
Sources
- Govindarajan, V. & Trimble, C., The Other Side of Innovation, 2010.
- O’Reilly, C. & Tushman, M., "The Ambidextrous Organization", HBR, 2004.
- Global Innovation Institute (GInI), Foundations of Innovation body of knowledge.